Black is favourite colour for European cars, says PPG

Black has ranked as the most popular vehicle colour in Europe and white has ranked as the most popular vehicle colour in the world according to data from PPG Industries, a world-leading manufacturer of transportation coatings.

In Europe, black is the most popular colour (26%), followed by white (19%), silver (16%), grey (15%), blue (9%), red (7%), naturals (5%), green (2%) and other/niche colours (1%). Globally, approximately 21% of 2011 model-year cars around the world have been white and silver and black tied for second most popular at 20%.

"We are seeing a continuing trend for white moving to special-effect white colours in future automotive palettes,” said Reiner Mueller-Koerber, PPG colour styling manager, Europe. "Tones of brown that started in the premium individual segments are now cascading down to smaller models. New violets and gold tones will influence and appear in new model and colour programmes.”

In North America, white was first (20%), followed by silver (19%), black (18%) and grey (15%). Red and blue tied for fifth (9%), followed by naturals such as browns, tans, golds, oranges and yellows (7%), green (2%), and other/niche colours (1%).